Monthly Archives: January 2007

Anne Bayefsky’s NRO column peers into the near future: “Genocide awaits us.” Referring to the United Nations, Bayefsky writes: [W]e are not only paying for the architect of our intended demise; we are acting as its p.r. firm. President Bush told the nation in his State of the Union Address: »

Reading John Dickerson’s account of Ari Fleischer’s testimony at the Libby trial yesterday reminds me of Tom Stoppard’s play The Real Inspector Hound. The audience is drawn into the mystery and the conclusion remains in doubt: “My surreal day at the Libby trial.” Stoppard’s play, however, is a comedy. The Libby trial is decidedly unfunny. (Courtesy of Lucianne.) »

Last week I complained that Contentions — Commentary’s new blog — had an excessive pool of talent on which to draw. Included among the Contentions contributors are magazine regulars Gabriel Schoenfeld, Terry Teachout, Joshua Muravchik and David Gelernter. Adding insult to injury, the blog then began to raid the Commentary archives, posting Weekend Reading — short stories by Saul Bellow, Bernard Malamud, Isaac Singer, Cynthia Ozick and others — drawn »

Brian Lambert is the former entertainment columnist for the St. Paul Pioneer Press. Even when he was writing about show biz it was apprarent that Lambert is a liberal. He now makes a living as a freelance writer. About three months ago he called me and asked if I would meet with him to talk about an article he was writing about my friend Katherine Kersten, the Star Tribune’s heterodox »

Not long ago, I wrote about the controversy at the College of William & Mary over the unilateral decision of its President Gene Nichol to remove the cross from the college’s Wren Chapel. In light of his unwillingness to consult with others prior to making his decision, as well as his wife’s past actions as counsel for the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, it seemed to me that Nichol »

In the first hour of our radio show on Saturday, we talked about the State of the Union; the various resolutions rattling around the Senate; the Democrats’ strategy (or lack thereof) in Iraq; and the antiwar demonstration in Washington. We took a lot of calls, mostly from listeners whose view of the Democrats is not as charitable as ours, and awarded our coveted Loon of the Week prize. It’s a »

In what he says may be his last post about “the pledge” Dean Barnett defends his claim that “the Republican Senators who will support [a resolution criticizing the 'surge'] will do so not out of any sort of conviction but due to political expediency.” I had challenged that claim, which Dean says is the premise of his efforts to get folks to pledge not to support such Senators. My argument »

We hear a lot of hysteria in the press about the American people deserting President Bush. Every time a new poll is released, it is trumpeted as documenting a new low in the President’s approval rating. But these polls follow a variety of methodologies, most of which appear to be flawed, and make it hard to track responses consistently over time. So I think it’s useful to look at Rasmussen »

Peter Berkowitz in the Weekly Standard reports on the consensus he discerned within the Israeli political/military/intellectual class at the seventh annual Herzliya Conference on Israel’s security last week. First, few Israelis believe that much good is likely to come of the three-way talks among the United States, Israel, and Palestinian Authority president Abbas that Secretary of State Rice has proposed. Second, last summer’s war with Hezbollah was neither a victory »

An interesting update on yesterday’s firefight near Najaf, in which 200 or more gunmen were reportedly killed, from Reuters: the attack was against members of a cult who were believed to be plotting to kill religious leaders in connection with the pilgrimage to Najaf: The leader of an Iraqi cult who claimed to be the Mahdi, a messiah-like figure in Islam, was killed in a battle on Sunday near Najaf »

OpinionJournal carries John Fund’s column on the Sandy Berger case. Fund discusses the documents Berger first stole from the National Archives, then destroyed. Fund concludes: “It’s time that Congress and the public learn why the Berger scandal was treated so nonchalantly.” Fund’s column is “Paper chase.” »

I’ve linked to several accounts of the January 20 debate between London Mayor “Red” Ken Livingstone and Daniel Pipes. Hot Air has posted video clips of the debate here. The debate comes in four clips that can be accessed on the right side of the screen. Dr. Pipes speaks in the third and fourth of the four clips. I highly recommend his presentation. »

Newt Gingrich has posted his remarks at the National Review Conservative Summit here. Video of the address is also accessible on the linked page. His remarks as presented do not follow the posted text so I recommend that you check the video to hear what Newt had to say. Newt’s well received speech at the NR Summit over the weekend followed Chuck Norris’s expression of support for Newt last week »

We’ve offered our impression that MSM coverage in Iraq differs markedly from normal war coverage. At one time, such coverge included reports about battles, territory lost and gained, and the like. Now, it tends to be only about death counts. And since the administration, afraid of comparisons to Vietnam, doesn’t like to provide enemy death counts, the reporting is almost always adverse. Today, however, AP reports that Iraqi troops attacked »

Long-time readers know that I try to keep abreast of developments in the world of beauty pageants. I’ve generally focused on Miss World and Miss Universe, but I thought this year I should check out the new format for the Miss America contest, the finals of which are tomorrow night. So I went to Yahoo News Photos to see how the pageant has been going. This is what I found »

I was saddened to learn that Deborah Orin of the New York Post died of cancer earlier today. I didn’t know Deborah well, but very much enjoyed the contact I had with her. We met when she sought out other bloggers and me at the Republican convention in August 2004. After that, we talked about a number of stories and traded tips here and there. Deborah was a wonderful reporter »